Embassy Row: Myth makers

The U.S. ambassador to Russia is so frustrated by a relentless tide of criticism from pro-Kremlin sources that he demanded his opponents “stop propagating myths.”

Ambassador Michael McFaul, in an article for the U.S. Embassy website in Moscow, attempts to explain how the United States helps promote democracy in Russia through grants to nonprofit groups and exchange visits by U.S. and Russian officials.

“There’s one thing that we definitely do not do,” he writes. “Despite the many accusations to the contrary, the United States does not provide support to individual politicians, political movements, or political parties.”

He also said Washington provided no money for demonstrations against Vladimir Putin, who last month won a third term as president after having served as prime minister for the past four years.

“I am eager to engage with my readers to help bring more light to this subject,” the ambassador writes. “It is time for everyone to stop propagating myths and begin to have more constructive conversation based on facts.”

Since arriving in Moscow in January, Mr. McFaul has had testy relations with government supporters and pro-Kremlin journalists, especially reporters at the state-run television station NTV, whom he suspects are hacking into his emails and tapping his phone.

“Everywhere I go NTV is there,” he said on Twitter last week. “I respect the press right to go anywhere & ask any question. But do they have a right to read my email and listen to my phone?”

On Friday, Mr. McFaul questioned how NTV learned about a private meeting he held with Lev Ponomaryov, a prominent Russian pro-democracy activist.

The ambassador said the meeting was not included on his public activities, and the State Department does not release his schedule. NTV said only that it has a “wide network of informants.”

Late Thursday, NTV broadcast a video of Mr. McFaul, who speaks Russian, arguing with several of the station’s reporters about the Ponomaryov meeting.

“How did you know about this meeting?” he asked, according to reports out of Moscow. “How did you get the information that I would be there?”

“This is a wild country,” he said, later adding that he was talking about the NTV reporters, not Russia.

DIPLOMATIC TRAFFIC

Foreign visitors in Washington this week include:

Monday

• President Felipe Calderon of Mexico and Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada meet with President Obama for the sixth North American Leaders’ Summit.

• Shinsuke Sugiyama, director-general of Japan’s Asian and Oceanian Affairs Bureau of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, meets with senior U.S. officials to discuss North Korea and other issues.

• Education Minister Esteban Bullrich of Argentina and Mercedes Miguel, director of educational planning for Buenos Aires, address the Inter-American Dialogue.

Tuesday

• Defense Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos of Greece meets with Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta.

• Mikael Gustafsson, a Swedish member of the European Parliament and the first man to chair the Women’s Rights Committee. He is accompanied by committee members Rodi Kratsa-Tsagaropoulou of Greece, Siiri Oviir of Estonia and Licia Ronzulli of Italy. They meet with officials from the Justice, Labor and State departments.

• William Walker of Scotland’s St. Andrew’s University discusses the issues surrounding Scottish independence in a briefing at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Wednesday

• Jozsef Szajer, a member of the European Parliament from Hungary’s governing Fidesz party and one of the authors of Hungary’s new constitution. He is accompanied by Andras Koltai, a member of the new Hungarian Media Authority. They meet with the German Marshall Fund.

Thursday

• Prime Minister Hashim Thaci of Kosovo discusses Kosovo’s goals of European integration in a briefing at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

• Call Embassy Row at 202/636-3297 or email jmorrison@washingtontimes.com. The column is published on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.